Christ

A title that names no episode

The record enters this work simply as Christ. That is not an omission to be filled in: a large part of religious painting is not narrative at all. Beside the cycle of episodes — Nativity, baptism, ministry, Passion, Resurrection — runs a parallel tradition of single devotional images, in which Christ is shown outside any moment of the story so that the viewer can address the image directly rather than watch an event.

Where a non-episode sits

Everywhere and nowhere in the sequence. A devotional half-length was made to hang in a chamber or a small chapel and to be looked at daily, not to be read in order with panels on either side. Where a narrative scene answers the question what happened next, this kind of image answers only who.

The record

The catalogue gives Bernardino Luini, 1530, and the National Gallery, London, at 73.7 by 57.8 centimetres — an upright close to half life size, the usual scale for this type. The style is entered as High Renaissance and the artist as Italian. The measured palette reads as red. The subject classification in the entry is inconsistent with the title, so it is not repeated here. Nothing in the record speaks to a commission, and nothing is supplied.